Dear Friends, Could I begin by saying thank you to all those who worked so hard to make our Advent and Christmas celebrations so special. Thank you to Mark and the choir, to all our visiting speakers and those who worked so hard on the technology team and behind the scenes to make sure services […]
Dear Friends, We have reached that point on the calendar when many people who travel to work are leaving in darkness and returning home in darkness. We feel a drop in the temperatures and the leaves are falling at a rate when we find it hard to keep up with them. In the gloom and […]
Dear Friends, One of the key aspects of November in our parish life is ‘remembering’.On the first Sunday in November, we remember, with thanksgiving, those who were connected with our parish in some way and have died over the course of the past year. On the second Sunday in November, we remember those who gave […]
Dear Friends, We are really excited to announce our continuing plans to resume some of our regular parish activities and organisations in October as we work our way through the risk assessments we need to complete. During the past month the Sunday School, the Boys’ Brigade and Anchor Boys, Messy Church and St. Finnian’s Toddlers […]
Dear Friends, September normally marks the return to all sorts of activities and organisations in parish life. People look forward to seeing friends they haven’t seen for a while and immersing themselves in those activities that are important to them. For the second consecutive year, as these notes go to print, we can’t say with […]
Dear Friends, As this month’s magazine goes to print, the country continues to make its way cautiously out of lockdown. We see restrictions easing on different sectors of society and we are grateful in the first instance for the successful rolling out of the vaccination programme. Many of our parishioners have received one, if not […]
Dear Friends, Over the past year and a bit we seem to find ourselves constantly navigating all sorts of changes because of the pandemic. Initially there was a big scramble to try to record services and the re-creation of a system of pastoral care to ensure people stayed in touch and supported one another in […]
Dear Friends, As we start to take baby steps in terms of coming out of lockdown there are certain things we maybe appreciate in a new way. I found it to be such a moving and beautiful thing to see people back in the church building to worship together on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. […]
Dear Friends, The season of Holy Week and Easter is always a high point in the life of any Christian community. It represents really powerful things to us like the emergence of hope and life after death. It’s a season that is not without its challenges when we walk that road of suffering with our […]
Dear Friends, I wonder if you have ever been struck by how music can transport you to other places and times in your life? Sometimes we hear a song on the radio or a hymn in church and it takes us back perhaps to our school days or holidays or memories of what we were […]